In her military career Junebug had occasionally been credited with good tactical instincts, some pieces of work had verged on brilliant, but at core her philosophy was a very simple one. Move fast, keep shooting and hope that when the smoke cleared you were still alive. It had been an excellent MO for armored unit commander and it was equally effective in the nasty close quarters fighting in the Pasha’s palace. In the confusions and tight quarters she shot at everyone. Even if she were on a particular side there was no time to identify who was who. A figure in what might have been a uniform staggered out of a doorway trying to pull up his pants. Junebug shot him twice in the chest sending him spinning into a wall with a thud before leaping over his slumping body. Another man rounded a coner in at a blind run. Sayeeda cut him down without hesitation on realising as she passed that he had no weapon. Well worse things happened in war time. You didn’t worry about what you couldn’t change.

After a few minutes she found herself in a deserted corridor though she could still hear the screaming and gunfire at other points in the palace. She ducked into a deserted room and found it to be filled with huming banks of data storage equipment. Fumbling, she reloaded the stolen weapon with one of the box like magazines. It was unfamiliar but there were only so many ways that it made sense to assemble a gun.

“Captain,” Niel’s voice sounded in her ears.

“Sven’s told his mercenaries to hold their fire,” the pilot spoke over the comlink.

“You think they are going to listen to him?” she asked.

“I think so, these are some tough looking bastards but they are all shit scared of Sven,” Neil returned. Sayeeda thought she could hear a mirthless chuckle in the background.

“You think he is after the same thing we are?” she asked, wondering if this was Sven’s way of seizing the same document Canek was looking for.

“I don’t think so,” Neil responded with a touch of hesitation.

“Seems to be interested in a power grab.” Junebug doubted the two things were mutually exclusive but it was going to be difficult to search while under fire. She pulled her intrusion kit out and slid it into the nearest computer.

“Can you access the system Taya?” she asked.

“Can do Junebug,” Taya’s voice responde.

“Alright, tell them I’m coming out,” Junebug responded to Neil.